Every coach, every quarterback, every offensive coordinator -- they all go after you and the other members of the Carolina Panthers' secondary.

Think about how that feels. You're playing on a 7-2 team, one with Super Bowl aspirations, and you're supposed to be the weak link.

You have to chase around some of the fastest men in America. But they know where they are going and you don't.

Plus, you're running backwards.

That's the job description for the Panthers' four starting defensive backs -- cornerbacks Terry Cousin and Reggie Howard, along with safeties Mike Minter and Deon Grant. They will be tested again Sunday by Steve Spurrier's Washington offense.

"When you play against a Spurrier team," said Grant, who at Tennessee used to face Spurrier's Florida squads every season, "you have to be ready for him to pull anything out of his bag at any time."

The Redskins (4-5) know Carolina ranks 25th out of 32 NFL teams in pass defense. They will have studied Tampa Bay's two fourth-quarter TD passes. They will understand that Carolina's two starting cornerbacks were so thoroughly dismissed coming out of college that neither was drafted.

And they will throw it. Deep.

"They love the vertical passing game," said Cousin, who will be matched up on Washington's top deep threat, Laveranues Coles. "That poses some problems."

Cousin, if you remember, was the cornerback who kept getting toasted in Carolina's season opener against Jacksonville.

But Cousin is still here and still starting.

For his performance last week against Tampa Bay, Cousin got a team T-shirt. The Panthers hand out those T-shirts to players who played very well but didn't get a game ball -- Minter and defensive tackle Kris Jenkins earned the defensive game balls against the Bucs.

"In this league, everybody's good," Cousin said. "So they are going to catch a touchdown pass on you. That doesn't mean you're sorry, but it means you have to have a short-term memory. Like in life, 10 percent of it all is what happens and 90 percent is how you react to it."

That sounds pretty philosophical. Defensive backs often are, for they must learn to live with failure in front of thousands of people.

Said Grant: "Even the great ones -- the Deion Sanders, the Rod Woodsons -- they get beat. It shows that you belong in the NFL if you can come back that next play and forget about it."

Washington was totally shut down by the Dallas defense 11 days ago when the Cowboys constantly blitzed and hammered quarterback Patrick Ramsey. But such a style leaves the cornerback in man-to-man coverage all over the field, and the Panthers aren't a high-risk team.

"We won't be doing what Dallas did -- no way," Minter said.

Carolina will try to beat Washington mostly without blitzing, the same way Seattle tried to last week but failed.

But the Panthers' front four is a lot better than Seattle's. Carolina's secondary?

That's a matter open to debate -- a debate reopened every week when the ball starts zipping through the air.

if ramsey stays upright , it will be a long day for the pussy cats. he needs time in the pocket to go deep, this game will hinge on carolinas pass rush, and the ability to pick it up with our line and other blockers. our receivers have the upper hand, no doubt, so it'll be up to samuels and company to win this game for us.

THN's resident jerk.

Glock .40 Model 22 - First* line of home defense.... 'ADT' is for liberals.

I just hope P-Ram stays on his feet long enough to hit LC for 190 yds, Gardner for 125, Trung with 59 yrds and Rock with just 110 yards rushing. I wonder since Spurrier moved over, will they activate Chamberlein for use in the offense

We had the game and let them walk down the field and score the winning touch down, doesn't matter if it was a touchdown or not, we gave it to them. It was ours to win and couldn't shut them down. Pathetic.

I'm going to disagree, naturally. We gave you 4 turnovers and you couldn't get anything off of them. We dominated you all day long - look at the game breakdown. Delhomme threw for 317 and we as a team ran for over 100 yards.

It WAS a touchdown! No doudt. Look at the books. The IF stories are in the DC bars tonight. Not Carolina. Hey, anybody tried the onion rings at the Front Page? They are GREAT!!

doeslammer wrote:We had the game and let them walk down the field and score the winning touch down, doesn't matter if it was a touchdown or not, we gave it to them. It was ours to win and couldn't shut them down. Pathetic.

I have to give you credit for the win, Carolina, but remember this...if we played as poorly as you say we did, and still had a chance to win the game, what are the other supposedly good teams going to do to you...??? Enjoy your brief moment in the sun...